Your support can bring hope to the injured Syrian children as well as other vulnerable groups

"I want two things for my son. To see him walk again and to see him complete his education. But above all I want to see him walking again without pain." Like many Syrian parents, Ahmad’s mother, Yaman’s biggest hope is to see her child living happily and healthily in peace.

Nine-year-old Ahmad is one of the affected children in the ongoing armed conflicts in Syria. He has lost both legs in bombing and was in excruciating pain for years since the accident.

Are you willing to give HK$500 and support our voluntary overseas medical services in the disaster areas, as well as other local humanitarian services, to bring warmth and hope to the needy living in desperate situations like Ahmad’s family?

Since the outbreak of the Syrian military conflicts in 2011, the country has been shattered by more than 1,250,000 casualties. The combat has ravaged the land as badly as its people, depleting resources and leaving many areas of the country devastated. According to the United Nations, over 13 million Syrians are presently in need of humanitarian aid, 5.2 million of whom have fled the country altogether in search of safer refuge throughout the Middle East and Europe, with thousands more even further afield.

For these displaced Syrians, access to medical care and humanitarian aid is minimal at best; countries like Jordan and Lebanon do not have the resources to provide adequate care, and in some locations, medical access is only available to residents, or at an expense that they cannot meet. On top of that, there are often hidden expenses, like the costs of traveling through checkpoints to reach hospitals and clinics, which all make getting care even more difficult.

Dear Hong Kong Red Cross Supporters,

Imagine what it must be like to be forced to flee not just your home and city, but your country, in fear for you and your family's lives. If you are lucky, you may travel to a new land that welcomes you in, but barely has the resources, to help you as you are – unemployed, alone, afraid, wounded, in need of even basic necessities, and unsure whether the rest of the world knows or cares about your plight.

Though physical pain has been healed, Ahmad still relies on wheelchair to move around. There is a long road ahead for Ahmad to return to school.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians like Ahmad and his family, are waiting for basic daily necessities as well as timely medical aids desperately every day. To ensure sustainable medical services to the injured in the war-torn country, the Red Cross has continually sending trained medical volunteers and equipment to meet their urgent needs.

May I thank you for your generous support to the Red Cross. Your donation has allowed us to continue our humanitarian aid to the needy both locally in Hong Kong as well as around the globe. However, the conflict in Syria has caused the population in crisis losing their home and everything, living in a desperate situation for over 5 years. We hope for the continued and collective effort from the world to help the affected Syrian. Please consider to join hands with us giving them hope by responding to our call again with a gift of HK$500 to ensure the continuity of medical and other humanitarian services in Syria and the neighbouring countries.

For years, we have been receiving stories from Red Cross volunteers and staff working for those affected by Syria Crisis. Sometimes sad, sometimes encouraging. I have picked a few in the booklet enclosed with a hope to share what they have seen and heard in the field. Please take a few minutes to understand their stories.

From fear to freedom

“I was playing near my home when I heard the bombing, I have lost my legs after that.” Nine-year-old Ahmad has experienced the horror of war first-hand: in 2011, he lost both of his legs when a mortar fell near his home. “After Ahmad was injured, he had surgery and therapy before we move to Lebanon in 2012, but it was not enough. Ever since the accident he has often been in excruciating pain.” Ahmad’s mother recalled.

Apart from excruciating physical pain, Ahmad’s experiences had left him traumatized to the point where medical staff often needed to sedate him just to treat him.

Ahmad has eventually overcome the fear of approaching strangers. While undergoing treatment, he always loves to have casual chats with medical volunteers.


Ahmad’s family members are so glad to see his smiling face again.

After his family moved to Lebanon, Ahmad was admitted to the Red Cross Medical and Rehabilitation Center. There, the staff worked with him to heal both his physical and emotional wounds. "He was afraid of everything and everyone. We tried to bribe and joke with him, but nothing worked," said Maj Gottarp, a ward nurse in the Red Cross Medical and Rehabilitation Center. "At one point he screamed he wanted to die."

Knowing that he was afraid of having his sutures removed, the staff used play therapy to help him overcome his fear of the process. They stitched a sponge and let him be the "doctor" and remove the stitches. By the end of the game, Ahmad had progressed from being terrified to being intrigued – he even asked to play the game a second time! And when it was time for his own stitches to be removed, he sat patiently through the entire three-hour procedure without fear.

Ahmad's medical journey is far from over, but now it is a hopeful one. Instead of screaming when doctors or nurses approached or contemplating death, Ahmad has smiles for everyone and wants to know when he will be able to return to school.

"Ever since we heard about the Red Cross Medical and Rehabilitation Center, it's as if I finally have my child back," Ahmad's mother said. "He is a different boy right now."

Your generous support and donations help continue the volunteer training programmes and provide continuous medical support to the needy affected by the Syria Crisis as well as people affected by natural and man-made disasters around the world. Your gift of HK500 will help build a brighter future for Ahmad and other vulnerable persons like him.

A humanitarian mission

These affected by the armed conflicts like Ahmad often lack access to medical services because the countries that have welcomed them in do not have the capacity to provide that care. Indeed, even in Syria itself, the ongoing conflict has made access to medical care difficult to impossible for many people. The Red Cross is dedicated to deploying the trained medical volunteers to meet this need.

Experienced orthopaedic surgeon Dr Anthony Cheung is one such volunteer. When he discovered that many Syrian patients were living with uncured fractures and infected wounds, he left Hong Kong and his private practice to work on a month-long Red Cross medical support mission to Red Cross Medical and Rehabilitation Center in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Dr Cheung has joined various mission in providing medical service, including mission to Sichuan after the 2008 Earthquake.


On top of providing orthopaedic care, Dr Cheung is responsible for tackling complications after injuries including infection and non-union after fracture.


Before transferring to the Red Cross Medical and Rehabilitation Center, Felemaz was once very worried about his progress of recovery.

During this mission, Dr Cheung treated not only new injuries, but also complications from older injuries that were left untreated or unresolved. One of his patients, Felemaz, received a fractured knee from a blast in Syria. After four surgeries, the injury has yet to heal, and might need more operations in the future to treat the fracture, which still refuses to mend.

Being a Red Cross volunteer gave Dr Cheung many opportunities to witness the indomitability of the human spirit and its perseverance in the face of tragedy. One brave seven-year-old boy was recuperating from skin graft surgery to repair burns across both of his lower limbs. When his wounds had to be cleaned and dressed – a very painful procedure – he refused to shed even a single tear. Another of Dr Cheung's patients, a 30-year-old musician with traumatic burns to his face and all four limbs from a bomb, continues to fight on in the face of pain, loneliness and loss. The severity of the burns took several of his fingers and severely deformed his limbs. He will never play music again, nor be able to earn a living, nor can he even see his family until his time at the ward is complete.

Experiences such as these are unfortunately all too common for the Syrian population. But while the stories may be sad, with your support and generous donation of HK$500 for the training of Red Cross volunteers for overseas mission and other humanitarian services of the Red Cross, those in need may still have happier endings.

There are over 200 Hong Kong Red Cross volunteers registered for overseas humanitarian mission at the moment. We recruit and train up volunteers with professional skills to provide emergency medical relief or other humanitarian services to people affected by disasters or armed conflicts overseas. The volunteers are specialists with diversified professional profiles, including healthcare, electrical and mechanical, water and sanitation, construction, and telecommunication.

Apart from the Medical and Rehabilitation Center in Lebanon, the Hong Kong Red Cross has also deployed medical volunteers to provide medical services in Greece and Jordan to Syrians in need.

In the last year, 20 volunteers were deployed to Nepal, Greece, Jordan, South Sudan and China to support people affected by disasters with emergency humanitarian services. Apart from professional trainings, we have prepositioned medical and personal equipment in our warehouse. With structural resources mobilization mechanism, our volunteers can be deployed for emergency operations within 24-hour after disaster strikes.

The Red Cross is dedicated to ensuring people affected by disasters like Ahmad and Felemaz to get treatment they need to live without pain and fear, and to making sure that we have the trained staff available to help those in need on a local and global level. But we can't do it without you.

Please donate online or download the donation form. Your donation of HK$500, HK$800 or even HK$1,000 will help us providing appropriate and timely services for the needy, so as to help them help themselves. These include trainings of Red Cross volunteers for overseas mission in this letter, as well as the various Red Cross humanitarian initiatives provided for those affected by disasters, the sick or injured, and the vulnerable groups.

Lastly, we express our sincere gratitude to your support. If you require further information on our services or usage of donation, please feel free to contact us or feedback to us at secretarygeneral@redcross.org.hk or at 2802 0016.

 

Best wishes,

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Bonnie So
Secretary General